Contents

Virgin Mobile was founded in October 2000 as a 50/50 business partnership between Virgin Mobile UK and Optus, using the Optus network infrastructure but with Virgin management of all aspects of the customer experience including branding of products, customer service and billing. Virgin Mobile was Australia's first Mobile Virtual Network Operator.

In January 2006, Optus bought all other shares in the business, and Virgin Mobile became a wholly owned subsidiary of Optus. A long-term licensing agreement was established for the business to continue trading under the Virgin brand. Optus merged Virgin Mobile with its subsidiaries SIMPlus and M8 in April 2006.

Virgin's wireless broadband service was first launched in 2007, offering a package of 4GB of data at claimed speeds of up to 700kbit/s, and unlimited phone calls to landlines Australia-wide as well as Virgin Mobile mobiles,[1] it uses an Option Globesurfer 7.2 modem, which includes an RJ11 jack for the connection of a regular PSTN landline telephone, an Ethernet jack for connection of a computer, as well as inbuilt 802.11gWiFi for wireless access by multiple computers.[2]

Each customer of Virgin Broadband is assigned a mobile phone number, the modem accesses the internet through Optus' mobile network.

In late 2007, Virgin Mobile changed the Virgin Broadband offer for new customers, halving the data allowance to 2GB as well as comprehensively re-writing their acceptable use policy.[3]

In early 2008, technology media reported that Virgin Mobile was having difficulty bringing problems with its parent company's network and its modems under control, and its customer call centres had wait times of 90 minutes or longer.[4]

Comments accumulating on customer-review websites through 2008 indicate that Virgin Broadband is failing to deliver on its promises. Users cite repeated drop-outs on the home phone service, poor performance and even complete lack of connection on the internet service, and long delays and conflicting information from the customer support line.[5]

Fair Go Bro (2013) was an integrated campaign featuring Doug Pitt (Brad Pitt's brother) in an attempt to show that you don't have to be famous to be treated like a star by Virgin Mobile. Won a Gold and Silver Clio, Best of Show and Gold at Adfest, a Grand Prix and 4xGold at Spikes, a Gold effectiveness Lion, three Silver Lions, a Bronze Lion at the 2013 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. According to marketing media reports, it was Virgin Mobile's "most successful campaign to date" and the thirteenth most awarded campaign of 2013.

Making Mobile Better (2014) Was a campaign run with the idea to make mobile better. with the main statement "We're making the mobile industry better by keeping pressure on the big guys and we're making mobile better for all of our customers through innovation and a fairer and better way to do business."[6] The Campaign was endorsed by Jane Lynch

1.
Optus
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Singtel Optus Pty Limited is the second largest telecommunications company in Australia. It is an owned subsidiary of SingTel since 2001. To provide services, Optus mostly owns and operates its own network infrastructure and it provides services both directly to end users and also acts as a wholesaler to other service providers such as Exetel and Amaysim. Through its Optus Yes brand, it provides broadband, and wireless internet services, other wholesale services include Satellite and 4G Mobile, in fact Optus is the largest satellite wholesaler in Australia. The company was known as Aussat Pty Limited prior to privatisation. It was later renamed to Cable & Wireless Optus Pty Limited before changing again to its present name, the dual frequencies covers 98. 5% of the population 4G/LTE provided by 700 /1800 /2100 /2300 /2600 MHz Covering over 90% of the Australian population. Satellite Telephony covering all of Australia, Internet Access NBN Residential Dial-Up Internet in all states Residential Broadband Internet in all states. A number of wholly owned subsidiaries operate in Australia as part of the Singtel Optus group. Optus also has a 50% stake in the now defunct OPEL Networks, other wholly owned subsidiaries of note no longer have a significant active role as individual entities. These are as follows, Reef Networks was formed in 1999 to provide an optical fibre link between Brisbane and Cairns in Queensland, Optus gained exclusive access to this link in 2001, ahead of acquiring the organisation in 2005. XYZed established a network of DSLAMs inside Telstra telephone exchanges, utilising Unconditioned Local Loop services to end users. Optus can trace its beginnings back to the formation of the Government-owned AUSSAT Pty Limited in 1981, in 1982, Aussat selected the Hughes 376 for their initial satellites, with the first, AUSSAT A1, launched in August 1985. AUSSAT satellites were used for military and civilian satellite communications, and delivering television services to remote outback communities. With Aussat operating at a loss and with moves to deregulate telecommunications in Australia, the new telecommunications company was designed to provide competition to then government owned telecommunications company Telecom Australia, now known as Telstra. Optus gained the second general carrier licence in January 1991, after privatisation, AUSSAT became Optus and its first offering to the general public was to offer long distance calls at cheaper rates than that of its competitor Telstra. The long distance calling rates on offer were initially available by consumers dialing 1 before the area code, following this, a ballot process was conducted by then regulator AUSTEL, with customers choosing their default long distance carrier. Customers who made no choice or refused to respond to the mailout campaign automatically remained as a Telstra long distance customer. Customers who remained with Telstra could dial the code of 1456 before the area code

2.
Prepay mobile phone
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A prepay mobile phone is a mobile phone for which credit is purchased in advance of service use. The purchased credit is used to pay for mobile phone services at the point the service is accessed or consumed, if there is no available credit, then access to the requested service is denied by the mobile phone network. Users are able to top up their credit at any time using a variety of payment mechanisms, the alternative billing method is the postpaid mobile phone, where a user enters into a long-term or short-term billing arrangement with a mobile network operator or carriage service provider. Pay-as-you-go, PAYG, and similar terms are used for other non-telephone services paid for in the same way. A prepay mobile phone provides most of the services offered by a phone operator. The big difference is that with prepay phones, payment for service is made before use, as calls and texts are made, and as data is used, deductions are made against the prepaid balance amount until there are no funds remaining. A user may avoid such a break in service by making payments to increase the remaining balance, methods of payment, Credit card or debit card Direct draw from bank account using an ATM Retail store purchase with a top-up or refill card at retail. These cards are stamped with a code which must be entered into the phone in order to add the credit onto the balance. Retail store purchase using a swipe card where the balance is credited automatically to the phone after the retailer accepts payment, Retail store or online purchase, a person can top-up a prepaid phone in another country by asking for international top-up. Often, migrant workers will send prepaid top-up internationally as a form of support, Direct from some open-loop prepay cards featuring a mobile refill service. Through electronic reloading where a specially designed SIM card is used to reload a mobile phone by entering the mobile number and choosing the amount to be loaded. This process is implemented in the Philippines and India so that any person can be a prepay load retailer, creating a nationwide availability of reloading stations. Credit purchased for a mobile phone may have a time limit – for example,120 days from the date the last credit was added. In these cases, customers who do not add more credit before expiration will have their remaining balance depleted through expiration of the said credits, there is no compulsion on a prepay mobile phone user to top up their balance. To maintain revenues, some operators have devised reward schemes designed to encourage frequent top-ups, for example, an operator may offer some free SMS to use next month if a user tops up by a certain amount this month. Unlike postpaid phones, where subscribers have to terminate their contracts, to free up resources on the network for new customers, an operator will periodically delete prepay SIM cards which have not been used for some time, at which point, their service is discontinued. The rules for when this deletion happens vary from operator to operator, by 2003, the number of prepay accounts grew past contract accounts, and by 2007, two thirds of all mobile phone accounts worldwide were prepay accounts. The history of the mobile phone begins in the 1990s

3.
Mobile phone
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A mobile phone is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area. The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the systems of a mobile phone operator. Most modern mobile telephone services use a network architecture, and, therefore. Mobile phones which offer these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones, the first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing c.4.4 lbs. In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available mobile phone. From 1983 to 2014, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew to seven billion, penetrating 100% of the global population. In first quarter of 2016, the top smartphone manufacturers were Samsung, Apple, a handheld mobile radio telephone service was envisioned in the early stages of radio engineering. In 1917, Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt filed a patent for a pocket-size folding telephone with a thin carbon microphone. Early predecessors of cellular phones included analog radio communications from ships, the race to create truly portable telephone devices began after World War II, with developments taking place in many countries. These 0G systems were not cellular, supported few simultaneous calls, the first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing c.4.4 lbs. The first commercial automated cellular network was launched in Japan by Nippon Telegraph and this was followed in 1981 by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone system in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Several other countries followed in the early to mid-1980s. These first-generation systems could support far more simultaneous calls but still used analog cellular technology, in 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available handheld mobile phone. In 1991, the digital cellular technology was launched in Finland by Radiolinja on the GSM standard. This sparked competition in the sector as the new operators challenged the incumbent 1G network operators, ten years later, in 2001, the third generation was launched in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard. This was followed by 3. 5G, 3G+ or turbo 3G enhancements based on the high-speed packet access family, allowing UMTS networks to have data transfer speeds. By 2009, it had become clear that, at point, 3G networks would be overwhelmed by the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications. Consequently, the industry began looking to data-optimized fourth-generation technologies, with the promise of speed improvements up to ten-fold over existing 3G technologies

4.
Telephone company
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Many telephone companies were at one time government agencies or privately owned but state-regulated monopolies. The government agencies are referred to, primarily in Europe. Telephone companies are common carriers, and in the United States are also called local exchange carriers, with the advent of mobile telephony, telephone companies now include wireless carriers, or mobile network operators. In 1913, a telephone trust ended and more than 20,000 independent telephone companies were able to use the lines of Bell Telephone Company. Comedian Lily Tomlin frequently satirized the telephone industry with a playing the telephone operator Ernestine. Ernestine, who one of Tomlins trademark characters, was perhaps most famous for the following line, We dont care. In the satirical 1967 film The Presidents Analyst, TPC, The Phone Company, is depicted as plotting to enslave humanity by replacing landlines with implanted mobile phones. In the 1988 video game Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, The Phone Company was used by the Caponian aliens to secretly reduce the intelligence of humans

5.
Richard Branson
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Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He founded the Virgin Group, which more than 400 companies. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneur at a young age, at the age of sixteen his first business venture was a magazine called Student. In 1970, he set up a mail-order record business, in 1972, he opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records, later known as Virgin Megastores. Bransons Virgin brand grew rapidly during the 1980s, as he set up Virgin Atlantic airline, in March 2000, Branson was knighted at Buckingham Palace for services to entrepreneurship. For his work in retail, music and transport, his taste for adventure, in 2002 he was named in the BBCs poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. In January 2016, Forbes listed Bransons estimated net worth at $5.2 billion, Branson was born in Blackheath, London, the eldest of three children of Eve Branson, a former ballet dancer and air hostess, and Edward James Branson, a barrister. His grandfather, the Right Honourable Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson, was a judge of the High Court of Justice, Branson was educated at Scaitcliffe School, a prep school in Berkshire, before briefly attending Cliff View House School in Sussex. His third great-grandfather, John Edward Branson, left England for India in 1793 and his father, Harry Wilkins Branson, later joined him in Madras. On the show Finding Your Roots, Branson was shown to have 3. 9% South Asian DNA, Branson attended Stowe School, an independent school in Buckinghamshire until the age of sixteen. Branson has dyslexia and had poor performance, on his last day at school, his headmaster, Robert Drayson. Bransons parents were supportive of his endeavours from an early age, One of her most successful ventures was building and selling wooden tissue boxes and wastepaper bins. Branson started his business from a church where he ran Student magazine. Branson interviewed several prominent personalities of the late 1960s for the magazine including Mick Jagger, Branson advertised popular records in The Student and it was an overnight success. Trading under the name Virgin, he records for considerably less than the High Street outlets. Branson once said, There is no point in starting your own business unless you do it out of a sense of frustration, the name Virgin was suggested by one of Bransons early employees because they were all new at business. At the time, many products were sold under restrictive marketing agreements that limited discounting, Branson eventually started a record shop in Oxford Street in London. In 1971, Branson was questioned in connection with the selling of records in Virgin stores that had been declared export stock, the matter was never brought before a court because Branson agreed to repay any unpaid tax and a fine

6.
Virgin Mobile UK
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Virgin Media, also known as Mobile from Virgin Media and Virgin Mobile UK, is a mobile phone service provider operating in the United Kingdom, and a subsidiary of Virgin Media. The company was launched by Virgin Group in 1999 as the worlds first Mobile Virtual Network Operator, as a virtual network operator, Virgin Mobile does not maintain its own network, but instead has contracts to use the existing network of EE. NTL, Telewest bought Virgin Mobile on 4 April 2006 and rebranded itself as Virgin Media on 9 February 2007, Virgin Mobile became part of the quadplay of Virgin Media services and received a new logo in-line with its parent. Virgin Media was subsequently purchased by Liberty Global in 2013, Virgin provide pay as you go and contract mobile packages, as well as mobile broadband services. It sells its services directly, as well as through Virgin Medias retail stores, Virgin Mobile was launched in November 1999 as a private joint venture between One2One and the Virgin Group. The company reported its first annual profit in 2003, following successful Christmas sales, the two companies had previously argued over the terms of the agreement made in 1999 and Richard Branson had filed a High Court action against T-Mobile. Richard Branson had considered making Virgin Mobile public in 2002, eventually dealing in shares of Virgin Mobile began on 21 July 2004, with 37% of the companies made available for sale as an initial public offering. The remaining shares were held by the Virgin Group, at the time the company had 4.1 million customers, employed 1,400 staff in the UK and the listing valued the company at £500m. In December 2005 it was announced that Virgin Mobile UK was in talks with NTL, the original bid of £817 million was rejected by Virgin Mobiles independent directors, who took the view that NTL, Telewests bid undervalued the business. Sir Richard Branson was reported to be confident that a deal could be completed. The offer was increased in January 2006, to £961m, or 372p per share, on 4 April 2006, NTL, Telewest Incorporated announced a £962. 4m recommended offer for Virgin Mobile. Branson indicated that he would accept the third option and this led to him receiving at least a 10. 1% stake in the newly enlarged NTL, Telewest, and helped to fund the increased 372p per share in cash for the minority shareholders. The independent directors of Virgin Mobile indicated to NTL, Telewest that they intended unanimously to recommend that Virgin Mobile shareholders vote in favour of the scheme. NTL, Telewest acquired Virgin Mobile on 4 July 2006, delisting it from the London Stock Exchange, NTL, Telewest rebranded under the Virgin Media name on 8 February 2007. Virgin Mobile sells pay as you go and contract airtime as well as mobile phones, the company also provides mobile broadband services with speeds of up to 7. 2Mbit/s and allowances of 1 and 3GB depending on the chosen package, provided through the EE 3G network. The service includes a Huawei E160 USB modem dongle painted black with a silver Virgin Mobile logo, Mobile phone and broadband services are also marketed through Virgin Media and its high street stores. A phone roaming on the T-Mobile masts are marked as Virgin, whereas phones roaming the Orange masts are marked as virgin

7.
Apple Inc.
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Apple is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. Apples consumer software includes the macOS and iOS operating systems, the media player, the Safari web browser. Its online services include the iTunes Store, the iOS App Store and Mac App Store, Apple Music, Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in April 1976 to develop and sell personal computers. It was incorporated as Apple Computer, Inc. in January 1977, Apple joined the Dow Jones Industrial Average in March 2015. In November 2014, Apple became the first U. S. company to be valued at over US$700 billion in addition to being the largest publicly traded corporation in the world by market capitalization. The company employs 115,000 full-time employees as of July 2015 and it operates the online Apple Store and iTunes Store, the latter of which is the worlds largest music retailer. Consumers use more than one billion Apple products worldwide as of March 2016, Apples worldwide annual revenue totaled $233 billion for the fiscal year ending in September 2015. This revenue accounts for approximately 1. 25% of the total United States GDP.1 billion, the corporation receives significant criticism regarding the labor practices of its contractors and its environmental and business practices, including the origins of source materials. Apple was founded on April 1,1976, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, the Apple I kits were computers single-handedly designed and hand-built by Wozniak and first shown to the public at the Homebrew Computer Club. The Apple I was sold as a motherboard, which was less than what is now considered a personal computer. The Apple I went on sale in July 1976 and was market-priced at $666.66, Apple was incorporated January 3,1977, without Wayne, who sold his share of the company back to Jobs and Wozniak for $800. Multimillionaire Mike Markkula provided essential business expertise and funding of $250,000 during the incorporation of Apple, during the first five years of operations revenues grew exponentially, doubling about every four months. Between September 1977 and September 1980 yearly sales grew from $775,000 to $118m, the Apple II, also invented by Wozniak, was introduced on April 16,1977, at the first West Coast Computer Faire. It differed from its rivals, the TRS-80 and Commodore PET, because of its character cell-based color graphics. While early Apple II models used ordinary cassette tapes as storage devices, they were superseded by the introduction of a 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drive and interface called the Disk II. The Apple II was chosen to be the platform for the first killer app of the business world, VisiCalc. VisiCalc created a market for the Apple II and gave home users an additional reason to buy an Apple II. Before VisiCalc, Apple had been a distant third place competitor to Commodore, by the end of the 1970s, Apple had a staff of computer designers and a production line

8.
Samsung
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Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the Samsung brand, Samsung was founded by Lee Byung-chul in 1938 as a trading company. Over the next three decades, the group diversified into areas including food processing, textiles, insurance, securities, Samsung entered the electronics industry in the late 1960s and the construction and shipbuilding industries in the mid-1970s, these areas would drive its subsequent growth. Following Lees death in 1987, Samsung was separated into four business groups – Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group, since 1990, Samsung has increasingly globalised its activities and electronics, in particular, its mobile phones and semiconductors have become its most important source of income. Notable Samsung industrial affiliates include Samsung Electronics, Samsung Heavy Industries, other notable subsidiaries include Samsung Life Insurance, Samsung Everland and Cheil Worldwide. Samsung has an influence on South Koreas economic development, politics, media. Its affiliate companies produce around a fifth of South Koreas total exports, Samsungs revenue was equal to 17% of South Koreas $1,082 billion GDP. On 17 February 2017, Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong was arrested for bribery, embezzlement, hiding assets overseas, according to Samsungs founder, the meaning of the Korean hanja word Samsung is tri-star or three stars. The word three represents something big, numerous and powerful, in 1938, Lee Byung-chull of a large landowning family in the Uiryeong county moved to nearby Daegu city and founded Samsung Sanghoe. Samsung started out as a trading company with forty employees located in Su-dong. It dealt in dried-fish, locally-grown groceries and made noodles, the company prospered and Lee moved its head office to Seoul in 1947. When the Korean War broke out, he was forced to leave Seoul and he started a sugar refinery in Busan named Cheil Jedang. In 1954, Lee founded Cheil Mojik and built the plant in Chimsan-dong and it was the largest woollen mill ever in the country. Samsung diversified into different areas. Lee sought to establish Samsung as leader in a range of industries. Samsung moved into lines of such as insurance, securities. President Park Chung Hee placed great importance on industrialization and he focused his economic development strategy on a handful of large domestic conglomerates, protecting them from competition and assisting them financially. In 1947, Cho Hong-jai, the Hyosung groups founder, jointly invested in a new company called Samsung Mulsan Gongsa, or the Samsung Trading Corporation, the trading firm grew to become the present-day Samsung C&T Corporation

9.
Sony
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Sony Corporation is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation that is headquartered in Kōnan, Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified business includes consumer and professional electronics, gaming, entertainment, the company is one of the leading manufacturers of electronic products for the consumer and professional markets. Sony was ranked 116th on the 2015 list of Fortune Global 500 and these make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. The group consists of Sony Corporation, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Financial Holdings and others. Sony is among the Semiconductor sales leaders by year and as of 2013, the companys current slogan is BE MOVED. Their former slogans were make. believe, like. no. other, Sony has a weak tie to the SMFG keiretsu, the successor to the Mitsui keiretsu. Sony began in the wake of World War II, in 1946, Masaru Ibuka started an electronics shop in a department store building in Tokyo. The company had $530 in capital and a total of eight employees, in the following year he was joined by his colleague, Akio Morita, and they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo 東京通信工業. The company built Japans first tape recorder, called the Type-G, in 1958 the company changed its name to Sony. When Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo was looking for a name to use to market themselves, they strongly considered using their initials. The primary reason they did not is that the railway company Tokyo Kyuko was known as TTK, the company occasionally used the acronym Totsuko in Japan, but during his visit to the United States, Morita discovered that Americans had trouble pronouncing that name. Another early name that was tried out for a while was Tokyo Teletech until Akio Morita discovered that there was an American company already using Teletech as a brand name, the name Sony was chosen for the brand as a mix of two words. One was the Latin word sonus, which is the root of sonic and sound, and the other was sonny, a common slang term used in 1950s America to call a boy. In the 1950s Japan sonny boys, was a word into Japanese which connoted smart and presentable young men. The first Sony-branded product, the TR-55 transistor radio, appeared in 1955, at the time of the change, it was extremely unusual for a Japanese company to use Roman letters to spell its name instead of writing it in kanji. The move was not without opposition, TTKs principal bank at the time and they pushed for a name such as Sony Electronic Industries, or Sony Teletech. Akio Morita was firm, however, as he did not want the company tied to any particular industry. Eventually, both Ibuka and Mitsui Banks chairman gave their approval, according to Schiffer, Sonys TR-63 radio cracked open the U. S. market and launched the new industry of consumer microelectronics

10.
Option (company)
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Option N. V. is a publicly quoted technology company, headquartered in Leuven, Belgium. Option specializes in the design, development, production and commercialization of broadband wireless technology devices, Option has been awarded Ernst & Youngs ‘Company of the Year’ award for 2005. Remarkable was the GlobeTrotter Fusion+ card which was the first to integrate HSDPA/UMTS/EDGE/Wi-Fi technologies on a data card. Option was the market leader in the wireless broadband niche. Most production took place at Jabil in Bergamo, Italy, while Celestica in Kladno, Czech Republic, nowadays, all manufacturing of devices is done in Wuxi. The products were marked as having been designed in Leuven, Options revenues substantially declined last years. Official website Usage of a GlobeTrotter Fusion+ card under Debian DOVADO routers supporting Option USB modems External antennas for Options USB and PC-card modems

11.
Registered jack
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A Registered Jack is a standardized telecommunication network interface for connecting voice and data equipment to a service provided by a local exchange carrier or long distance carrier. They were subsequently codified in the Code of Federal Regulations Part 68, the specification includes physical construction, wiring, and signal semantics. Accordingly, registered jacks are primarily named by the letters RJ, additionally, letter suffixes indicate minor variations. For example, RJ11, RJ14, and RJ25 are the most commonly used interfaces for telephone connections for one-, two-, although these standards are legal definitions in the United States, some interfaces are used world-wide. The connectors used for registered jack installations are primarily the modular connector, for example, RJ11 uses a six-position two-conductor connector, RJ14 uses a six-position four-conductor modular jack, while RJ21 uses a 25-pair miniature ribbon connector. The same modular connector type may be used for different registered jack applications, there is much confusion over these connection standards. The RJ11 standard dictates a single wire connection, while RJ14 is a configuration for two lines, and RJ25 uses all six wires for three telephones lines. The RJ designations, though, only pertain to the wiring of the jack, hence the name Registered Jack, it is commonplace, modular connectors were developed to replace older telephone installation methods that used either hardwired cords, or bulkier varieties of telephone plugs. The common nomenclature for modular connectors includes the number of contact positions, a six-position modular plug with conductors in the middle two positions and the other four positions unused has the designation 6P2C. The connectors could be supplied with more pins, but if more pins are actually wired and these interfaces used newly standardized jacks and plugs, primarily based on miniature modular connectors. The wired communications provider is responsible for delivery of services to a point of entry. The MPOE is a utility box, usually containing surge protective circuitry, customers are responsible for all jacks, wiring, and equipment on their side of the MPOE. The intent was to establish a standard for wiring and interfaces. In the Bell System, following the Communications Act of 1934, telephones were generally hardwired, but may have been installed with Bell System connectors to permit portability. The legal case Hush-A-Phone v. Registered jacks replaced the use of protective couplers provided exclusively by the telephone company, the new modular connectors were much smaller and cheaper to produce than the earlier, bulkier connectors that were used in the Bell System since the 1930s. The Bell System issued specifications for the connectors and their wiring as Universal Service Order Codes. USOCs are commonly specified to the communications provider by large businesses for a variety of services, because there are many standardized interface options available to the customer, the customer must specify the type of interface required by RJ/USOC. For a multi-line interface such as the RJ21, the customer must denote which position of the interface are to be used, if there are multiple RJ21 connectors, they are numbered sequentially and the customer must advise the communications provider of which one to use. TR5-1999

12.
Ethernet
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Ethernet /ˈiːθərnɛt/ is a family of computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks, metropolitan area networks and wide area networks. It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 1983 as IEEE802.3, over time, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies such as token ring, FDDI and ARCNET. The original 10BASE5 Ethernet uses coaxial cable as a medium, while the newer Ethernet variants use twisted pair. Over the course of its history, Ethernet data transfer rates have increased from the original 2.94 megabits per second to the latest 100 gigabits per second. The Ethernet standards comprise several wiring and signaling variants of the OSI physical layer in use with Ethernet, systems communicating over Ethernet divide a stream of data into shorter pieces called frames. As per the OSI model, Ethernet provides services up to, since its commercial release, Ethernet has retained a good degree of backward compatibility. Features such as the 48-bit MAC address and Ethernet frame format have influenced other networking protocols, the primary alternative for some uses of contemporary LANs is Wi-Fi, a wireless protocol standardized as IEEE802.11. Ethernet was developed at Xerox PARC between 1973 and 1974 and it was inspired by ALOHAnet, which Robert Metcalfe had studied as part of his PhD dissertation. In 1975, Xerox filed a patent application listing Metcalfe, David Boggs, Chuck Thacker, in 1976, after the system was deployed at PARC, Metcalfe and Boggs published a seminal paper. Metcalfe left Xerox in June 1979 to form 3Com and he convinced Digital Equipment Corporation, Intel, and Xerox to work together to promote Ethernet as a standard. The so-called DIX standard, for Digital/Intel/Xerox, specified 10 Mbit/s Ethernet, with 48-bit destination and source addresses and it was published on September 30,1980 as The Ethernet, A Local Area Network. Data Link Layer and Physical Layer Specifications, version 2 was published in November,1982 and defines what has become known as Ethernet II. Formal standardization efforts proceeded at the time and resulted in the publication of IEEE802.3 on June 23,1983. Ethernet initially competed with two largely proprietary systems, Token Ring and Token Bus, in the process, 3Com became a major company. 3Com shipped its first 10 Mbit/s Ethernet 3C100 NIC in March 1981, an Ethernet adapter card for the IBM PC was released in 1982, and, by 1985, 3Com had sold 100,000. Parallel port based Ethernet adapters were produced for a time, with drivers for DOS, by the early 1990s, Ethernet became so prevalent that it was a must-have feature for modern computers, and Ethernet ports began to appear on some PCs and most workstations. This process was sped up with the introduction of 10BASE-T and its relatively small modular connector. Since then, Ethernet technology has evolved to meet new bandwidth, in addition to computers, Ethernet is now used to interconnect appliances and other personal devices

13.
Wi-Fi
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Wi-Fi or WiFi is a technology for wireless local area networking with devices based on the IEEE802.11 standards. Wi-Fi is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance, which restricts the use of the term Wi-Fi Certified to products that successfully complete interoperability certification testing. Devices that can use Wi-Fi technology include personal computers, video-game consoles, smartphones, digital cameras, tablet computers, digital audio players, Wi-Fi compatible devices can connect to the Internet via a WLAN network and a wireless access point. Such an access point has a range of about 20 meters indoors, hotspot coverage can be as small as a single room with walls that block radio waves, or as large as many square kilometres achieved by using multiple overlapping access points. Wi-Fi most commonly uses the 2.4 gigahertz UHF and 5 gigahertz SHF ISM radio bands, having no physical connections, it is more vulnerable to attack than wired connections, such as Ethernet. In 1971, ALOHAnet connected the Hawaiian Islands with a UHF wireless packet network, ALOHAnet and the ALOHA protocol were early forerunners to Ethernet, and later the IEEE802.11 protocols, respectively. A1985 ruling by the U. S. Federal Communications Commission released the ISM band for unlicensed use and these frequency bands are the same ones used by equipment such as microwave ovens and are subject to interference. In 1991, NCR Corporation with AT&T Corporation invented the precursor to 802.11, the first wireless products were under the name WaveLAN. They are the credited with inventing Wi-Fi. In 1992 and 1996, CSIRO obtained patents for a method used in Wi-Fi to unsmear the signal. The first version of the 802.11 protocol was released in 1997 and this was updated in 1999 with 802. 11b to permit 11 Mbit/s link speeds, and this proved to be popular. In 1999, the Wi-Fi Alliance formed as an association to hold the Wi-Fi trademark under which most products are sold. Wi-Fi uses a number of patents held by many different organizations. In April 2009,14 technology companies agreed to pay CSIRO $1 billion for infringements on CSIRO patents and this led to Australia labeling Wi-Fi as an Australian invention, though this has been the subject of some controversy. In 2016, the local area network Test Bed was chosen as Australias contribution to the exhibition A History of the World in 100 Objects held in the National Museum of Australia. The name Wi-Fi, commercially used at least as early as August 1999, was coined by the brand-consulting firm Interbrand, the Wi-Fi Alliance had hired Interbrand to create a name that was a little catchier than IEEE802. 11b Direct Sequence. Phil Belanger, a member of the Wi-Fi Alliance who presided over the selection of the name Wi-Fi, has stated that Interbrand invented Wi-Fi as a pun upon the word hi-fi. Interbrand also created the Wi-Fi logo, the yin-yang Wi-Fi logo indicates the certification of a product for interoperability

14.
50 Cent
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Curtis James Jackson III, known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, businessman, and investor. Born in the South Jamaica neighborhood of the borough of Queens, although he left drug-dealing to pursue a musical career, in 2000 he was shot nine times. After Jackson released the compilation album Guess Whos Back. in 2002, he was discovered by Eminem and signed by Shady Records, Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records. With the aid of Eminem and Dr. Dre, Jackson became one of the worlds best selling rappers, in 2003, he founded G-Unit Records, signing his G-Unit associates Young Buck, Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo. Jackson had similar commercial and critical success with his album, The Massacre. He released his studio album, Animal Ambition, in 2014 and is working on his sixth studio album. He executive produces the show Power, which airs on Starz and he has pursued an acting career, appearing in the semi-autobiographical film Get Rich or Die Tryin, the Iraq War film Home of the Brave and Righteous Kill. 50 Cent was ranked the sixth-best artist of the 2000s and the third-best rapper by Billboard. Rolling Stone consider Get Rich or Die Tryin and “In Da Club to be in their lists of “100 Best albums of the 2000s”, Jackson was born in the borough of Queens, New York City, and raised in its South Jamaica neighborhood by his mother, Sabrina. A drug dealer, Sabrina raised Jackson until she died in a fire when Jackson was 8. After his mothers death and his fathers departure Jackson was raised by his grandmother and he began boxing at about age 11, and when he was 14 a neighbor opened a boxing gym for local youth. When I wasnt killing time in school, I was sparring in the gym or selling crack on the strip, during the mid-1980s, he competed in the Junior Olympics, I was competitive in the ring and hip-hop is competitive too. I think rappers condition themselves like boxers, so they all kind of feel like theyre the champ, at age 12, Jackson began dealing narcotics when his grandparents thought he was in after-school programs and brought guns and drug money to school. In the tenth grade, he was caught by metal detectors at Andrew Jackson High School, after I got arrested I stopped hiding it. I was telling my grandmother, I sell drugs, on June 29,1994, Jackson was arrested for selling four vials of cocaine to an undercover police officer. He was arrested three weeks later, when police searched his home and found heroin, ten ounces of crack cocaine. Although Jackson was sentenced to three to nine years in prison, he served six months in a camp and earned his GED. He has said that he did not use cocaine himself, Jackson adopted the nickname 50 Cent as a metaphor for change

15.
Jason Donovan
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Jason Donovan is an Australian actor and singer. He initially achieved fame in the Australian soap Neighbours, before beginning a career in music in 1988. In the UK he has sold over 3 million records, and his début album Ten Good Reasons was one of the albums of 1989. He has had four UK No.1 singles, one of which was Especially for You and he has also appeared in several stage musicals, most prominently in the lead role of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in the early 1990s. Born in Australia, he now resides in London, United Kingdom, Jason Donovan was born in Malvern, Melbourne, and is the son of Sue Menlove and actor Terence Donovan who has English and Irish ancestry. Following his parents separation and divorce, his father was awarded custody of him in 1972. Donovan has had no contact with his mother since the divorce and his half-sister is former Neighbours star Stephanie McIntosh. He attended De La Salle College Malvern, Donovans partner since 1998 has been Angela Malloch, a former stage manager, with whom he has three children. Donovan and Malloch were married in Bali in 2008, Donovan confirmed he is Jewish through his maternal great-grandmother, Eileen Dawson. His great-great-grandparents Joseph and Rosetta Lyons originated from Whitechapel, London, Donovan made his first television appearance at age 11 in a guest role on the Australian series Skyways in 1980. In the episode, his sister was played by future Neighbours co-star Kylie Minogue. He also appeared in the series I Can Jump Puddles and Golden Pennies before entering the cast of Neighbours in 1986 as Scott Robinson and his characters story arcs included an onscreen romance and wedding to Charlene Mitchell. He won his first Logie Award for Best New Talent in 1987, in 1988 he was awarded the Silver Logie for the Most Popular Actor on Australian television. In addition to his role in Neighbours, Donovan appeared as Happy Houston in the 1988 Australian World War II mini-series The Heroes. He won the 1990 Logie Award for Most Popular Actor in a Mini-Series, twenty years later, he said that he had been asked to return to tie in with the shows 25th anniversary in 2010, but was unable to do so due to other work commitments. While he was appearing in Neighbours, Donovan followed Minogue in signing a recording contract with Mushroom Records in Australia. His first single, Nothing Can Divide Us, was released in 1988, like Minogues material, it was written and produced by the production team of Stock Aitken Waterman. The single reached number five in the UK, Donovans next single was a duet with Minogue

16.
Vanilla Ice
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Robert Matthew Van Winkle, known professionally as Vanilla Ice, is an American rapper, actor, and television host. Ices 1990 single Ice Ice Baby was the first hip hop single to top the Billboard charts, after surviving a suicide attempt, Ice was inspired to change his musical style and lifestyle. While his later, less mainstream albums failed to chart or receive radio airplay. In 2009, Ice began hosting The Vanilla Ice Project on DIY Network and his latest album WTF – Wisdom, Tenacity & Focus was released in August 2011. Ice is currently signed to Psychopathic Records, robert Matthew Van Winkle was born in Dallas, Texas, on October 31,1967. Van Winkle has never known his father, he was given the family name of the Dutch man his mother was married to at the time of his birth. When Van Winkle was four, his mother divorced, afterward, he grew up moving between Dallas and Miami, where his new stepfather worked at a car dealership. Hip hop affected Van Winkle at an age, saying Its a very big passion of mine because I love poetry. I was just heavily influenced by that movement and its molded me into who I am today. Between the ages of 13 and 14, Van Winkle practiced breakdancing, although he disliked the nickname, it stuck. Shortly afterward, Van Winkle started battle rapping at parties and because of his rhymes, however, when he became a member of a breakdance troupe, Van Winkles stage name was Vanilla Ice combining his nickname Vanilla with one of his breakdance moves, The Ice. When Ices stepfather was offered a job in Carrollton, Texas. He attended R. L. Turner High School for a time before dropping out. When Ice was not learning to ride motorbikes, he was dancing as a performer with his breakdancing group. Ice wrote Ice Ice Baby at the age of 16, basing its lyrics on a weekend he had with friend, the lyrics describe Ice and Shay on a drug run that ends in a drive-by shooting while praising Ices rhyming skills. In 1985, he was focusing all of his energy on motocross, Ice used his beatboxing and breakdancing skills as a street performer with his friends at local malls during this time. One evening he visited City Lights, a South Dallas nightclub and he won the crowd over and was asked by City Lights manager John Bush if he wanted to perform regularly, which he accepted. Ice would be joined on stage with his disc jockey D-Shay and Zero as well as Earthquake, the Vanilla Ice Posse or The V. I. P. would also perform with Ice on stage

17.
Brad Pitt
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William Bradley Brad Pitt in Shawnee Oklahoma. He is an American actor and producer and he has received multiple awards and nominations including an Academy Award as producer under his own company Plan B Entertainment. Pitt first gained recognition as a hitchhiker in the road movie Thelma & Louise. His first leading roles in big-budget productions came with the dramas A River Runs Through It and Legends of the Fall, Pitt starred in the cult film Fight Club and the heist film Oceans Eleven and its sequels, Oceans Twelve and Oceans Thirteen. As a public figure, Pitt has been cited as one of the most influential and powerful people in the American entertainment industry, as well as the worlds most attractive man and his personal life is also the subject of wide publicity. Divorced from actress Jennifer Aniston, to whom he was married for five years and they have six children together, three of whom were adopted internationally. In September 2016, Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt, William Bradley Pitt was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, to William Bill Alvin Pitt, manager of a trucking company, and Jane Etta, a school counsellor. The family soon moved to Springfield, Missouri, where he lived together with his siblings, Douglas. Pitt has described Springfield as Mark Twain country, Jesse James country, having grown up with a lot of hills, Pitt attended Kickapoo High School, where he was a member of the golf, swimming and tennis teams. He participated in the schools Key and Forensics clubs, in school debates, following his graduation from high school, Pitt enrolled in the University of Missouri in 1982, majoring in journalism with a focus on advertising. As graduation approached, Pitt did not feel ready to settle down and he loved films—a portal into different worlds for me—and, since films were not made in Missouri, he decided to go to where they were made. Two weeks before earning his degree, Pitt left the university and moved to Los Angeles, while struggling to establish himself in Los Angeles, Pitt took lessons from acting coach Roy London. Pitts acting career began in 1987, with uncredited parts in the films No Way Out, No Mans Land and his television debut came in May 1987 with a two-episode role on the NBC soap opera Another World. In November of the same year Pitt had a guest appearance on the ABC sitcom Growing Pains and he appeared in four episodes of the CBS primetime series Dallas between December 1987 and February 1988 as Randy, the boyfriend of Charlie Wade. Later in 1988, Pitt made a guest appearance on the Fox police drama 21 Jump Street, in the same year, the Yugoslavian–U. S. Co-production The Dark Side of the Sun gave Pitt his first leading film role, the film was shelved at the outbreak of the Croatian War of Independence, and was not released until 1997. He made guest appearances on television series Head of the Class, Freddys Nightmares, Thirtysomething, and Growing Pains. Pitt was cast as Billy Canton, an addict who takes advantage of a young runaway in the 1990 NBC television movie Too Young to Die. the story of an abused teenager sentenced to death for a murder

18.
V Festival (Australia)
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The Australian V Festival was an Australian music festival, and a spin-off of the British V Festival. Like all V Festivals, the event was sponsored by Virgin Mobile. In Australia the event was sponsored by airline Virgin Blue. The V Festival was televised exclusively in Australia by MTV, and from 2008, in 2008 the festival expanded to four shows, with Melbourne and Perth being added. Since the 2009 V Festival the event has been in hiatus, the festivals first announcement was made on 18 November 2008, with the second announcement occurring on 11 February 2009. The festivals first announcement was made on 28 November 2007, the festivals second announcement was made on 10 February 2008. It included the return of the Virgin Mobile Venue, the fourth stage. *Mika was originally featured in the first announcement, but cancelled due to recording commitments, the festival ran two shows in its inaugural year, one at Centennial Park in Sydney on 31 March and one at Avica Resort on the Gold Coast on 1 April. Adelaide also missed out on the festival, disappointing many Victorian, the following night the line-ups swapped cities with Pet Shop Boys playing in Adelaide and Pixies playing in Melbourne. The move was controversial, however, with tickets for one night at the Melbourne show costing only slightly less than a festival ticket, the promoter responded that the similar cost was to do with the economics of scale regarding the smaller capacity venues in Melbourne and Adelaide. The Best Of shows did not return in 2008, for several reasons, firstly, Melbourne was given a full V Festival for 2008, due to the availability of the newly renovated Showgrounds. The sideshow schedule was as follows, V Festival Virgin Festival Official website V Festival 2007 on Virgin Mobile Official Virgin Group site

19.
The Metro Theatre
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The Metro Theatre is a music venue located on George Street, in the city centre of Sydney, Australia. The venue was redeveloped, from two former cinemas, by property developer Leon Fink, acts who generally perform at the Metro usually are Heavy Metal music, indie-rock and alternative bands, often of international fame. It was the venue for the now-legendary Sydney concerts in 1995 by Jeff Buckley and it has two separate performance spaces inside the building, the Forum and the Transit Lounge. Up until 2007 it was not uncommon for both spaces to be used on the night for different acts, with the larger of the two, the Forum, generally hosting the more famous act. Since the launch of the Lair the space has seldom been used for a public performance, for a brief period in the second half of 2006 the venue was known as the Century Theatre after it went into receivership and was acquired by Century Venues. It was changed back to the Metro Theatre by October 2006, on 16 September 2009 the Metro was rebranded as the Virgin Mobile Metro, after a sponsorship deal had been made. Dappled Cities Fly and the Seabellies both played at the night on 29 September 2009

20.
Splendour in the Grass
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Splendour in the Grass is an Australian music festival that has been held annually since 2001. The festival has been held near Byron Bay, New South Wales for all, in 2010 and 2011, the festival was held in Woodford, Queensland, while organisers made an effort to gain support for a new location at North Byron Parklands at Yelgun. The event returned to Byron Bay in 2012, when it was held at Belongil Fields, the 2013 festival was the first to be held at the new North Byron Parklands location, to much controversy from festival goers and the local community. As of 2014, the capacity of the festival is 30,000. The festival was awarded the FasterLouder Festival Award for Favourite Line Up in 2009, ode, Intimations of Immortality, by English poet William Wordsworth, was the inspiration for the naming of the event. The 14,000 tickets of the 2005 festival were sold out within 26 hours and, soon after, the festival organisers responded by sending cease and desist letters to eBay, as well as around 150 ticket resellers, citing a breach of the conditions of sale. However, eBay refused to block the ticket auctions, claiming it was the responsibility to ensure that they have the ability. The Triple J radio station encouraged its listeners to sabotage the bidding process, following media coverage, the NSW Department of Fair Trading became involved and met with eBay representatives. The then-Fair Trading Minister John Hatzistergos instructed the Office of Fair Trading to investigate the reselling of tickets, Festival promoters hoped that the investigation would eventually lead to the introduction of anti-ticket scalping legislation. In response to the events of 2005, the organisers altered the system for the 2006 festival. In an unprecedented action, ticket buyers were required to register their name and these details were then printed on the event tickets and valid identification was required to gain admission into the festival. Tickets to the 2006 festival went on sale at 9am on Monday 15 May 2006—all camping tickets sold out three hours, and all general admission tickets sold out after 48 hours. Festival organisers encountered difficulties with the system provided by the Qjump company in 2008. Qjump later issued an apology on the festivals Internet forum, for a once-only trial, the organisers obtained permission to stage the 2009 Splendour in the Grass at a site in Yelgun. The development consent was ruled invalid, prohibiting the festival from being held at the Yelgun site, as a consequence of the decision, the festival remained at the Belongil site in 2009. In 2016 many attendees were forced to walk from the venue or sleep in the mud due to a lack of transport, note, Two Door Cinema Club were originally slated to appear, but withdrew before the festival. They were replaced by UK outfit Foals, london Grammar also withdrew due to sickness in the band. They were replaced by The Presets, note, Catfish And The Bottlemen were initially slated to appear, but withdrew days before the festival due to illness in the band

21.
Bluesfest Byron Bay
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It features a large selection of blues and roots performers, from Australia and around the world, and is one of the worlds leading contemporary music festivals. It was founded by Keven Oxford in 1990 and is now run by Peter Noble who joined Oxford for the 1994 event and it has been held at several locations in and around Byron Bay, and is currently held at Tyagarah,11 kilometres drive north of Byron Bay town. Originally running for three days, it now runs for five days, from Thursday to Monday, from an original crowd of 6,000, it now attracts annual audiences of over 101,000 across the five days. Patrons range from locals to international visitors, from an age range. The festival was staged for the first time in 1990 at the Arts Factory Lodge in Byron Bay as a blues music event over the Easter weekend. Noble bought out the consortium in 2008 and now owns the festival alone, in 2010 Bluesfest moved to its permanent home at the 120-hectare Tyagarah Tea Tree farm. The 2008 festival had more food and craft stalls, an area where festival goers could eat at tables. Artists in 2008 included Buddy Guy, Eskimo Joe, The John Butler Trio, Gotye, The Beautiful Girls, Newton Faulkner, Seasick Steve, Charlie Musselwhite, Mavis Staples, John P

22.
Virgin Mobile
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Virgin Mobile is a wireless communications brand used by eight independent brand-licensees worldwide. Virgin Mobile branded services used to be offered in Singapore, India, each Virgin Mobile branded entity acts independently from the others, thus the handsets, service plans and network radio interfaces vary from country to country. In a given country, the Virgin Mobile wireless entity is typically a partnership between Richard Bransons Virgin Group and a mobile network operator or mobile virtual network operator. Virgin Mobile Australia is a company based in Sydney, Australia. They sell through over 73 retail outlets, including stores in Perth, Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane, as well as via telesales. In Australia, Virgin Mobile operates on the Optus network, Virgin Mobile Canada experienced substantial growth in 2008, launching approximately 60 Virgin Mini Stores across the country. VMS are kiosks usually located in shopping malls that especially target the 18- to 35-year-old demographic, for four years running, Virgin Mobile Canada has received J. D. Power and Associates annual award for Highest Customer Satisfaction for Prepaid Wireless. Post-paid plans were introduced to Virgin Canada in February 2008, Bell Mobility acquired Virgin Mobile Canada in May 2009 for CAN$142 million. Some of its stores in Ontario and Quebec are operated by the largest Bell franchise, in early 2010, Virgin Mobile Canada launched the iPhone 3G, 3GS and 4 post-paid service in Virgin Mobile Retail Stores and online, all around Canada. Virgin Mobile became the fifth brand offering the iPhone in Canada, after Fido, Rogers Wireless, Telus, in conjunction with the launch of the third-generation iPad, Bell Mobility will allow Virgin Mobile Canada customers to access its LTE network. Virgin Mobile Poland is a phone service provider operating in Poland. Being a virtual operator, Virgin Mobile does not maintain its own network and it is the only mobile phone service provider to offer free GSM voice calls, plus Internet. Virgin Mobile South Africa is a joint-venture between Sir Richard Bransons Virgin Group and Cell C. Virgin Mobile South Africa launched in 2006. In February 2011 it was reported that Cell Cs 50% stake in Virgin Mobile is to be sold to Virgin Group of the UK, Virgin Mobile UK is a mobile phone service provider operating in the United Kingdom. The company was the worlds first Mobile Virtual Network Operator and it launched in 1999 using the coverage of network operator One2One. Virgin Mobile top-up cards are available online and in 150,000 retail locations nationwide, in 2008, Virgin Mobile USA acquired post-paid services provider Helio, Inc. In 2009, Sprint Nextel Corporation bought out joint venture partners Virgin Group and SingTel, Virgin Mobile USA is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, and provides service to approximately 6 million customers. VMLA announced in June of this year its plan to become Latin America’s leading mobile network operator

23.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia

24.
Telstra
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Telstra has a long history in Australia, originating together with Australia Post as a government department, the Postmaster-Generals Department. Telstra is now fully privatised and has been undergoing a change program to become more customer focused under its recent CEO, New CEO Andy Penn was expected to increase the focus on growth in international markets although this plan is now in doubt. The federal governments National Broadband Network is causing changes to the industry and will see the company progressively sell its copper, Telstra head office is the Telstra Corporate Centre located at 242 Exhibition St, Melbourne, Australia. Australian telecommunications services were controlled by the Postmaster-Generals Department, formed in 1901 as a result of Australian Federation. Prior to 1901, telecommunications were administered by each colony, on 1 July 1975, separate commissions were established by statute to replace the PMG. Responsibility for postal services was transferred to the Australian Postal Commission, the Australian Telecommunications Commission, trading as Telecom Australia, ran domestic telecommunication services. In 1989, the ATC was reconstituted as the Australian Telecommunications Corporation, the AOTC was renamed to Telstra Corporation Limited in 1993. The name Telstra is derived from the word Telecom Australia, the corporation then traded under the Telstra brand internationally and Telecom Australia domestically until uniform branding of Telstra was introduced throughout the entire organisation in 1995. Telstra has faced competition since the early 1990s from Optus and a number of smaller providers, Telstra also has pay TV and data cable network Foxtel. Other companies offering fixed-line services must therefore deal with Telstra, except Optus, TransACT, the Overseas Telecommunications Commission was established by an Act of Parliament in August 1946. The new organisation underwent a corporate identity review and was subsequently renamed Telstra Corporation Limited for international business in 1993, Telstra was privatised in three different stages, informally known as T1, T2 and T3 in 1997,1999 and 2006 respectively. In T1, the government sold one third of its shares in Telstra for A$14 billion, in 1999, a further 16% of Telstra shares were sold to the public, leaving the Australian government with 51% ownership. In 2006, T3 was announced by the government and was the largest of the three releases, reducing the governments ownership of Telstra to 17%. The 17% remainder of Telstra was placed in Australias Future Fund, in 2009, the Future Fund sold off another $2.4 billion worth of shares reducing the governments stake in Telstra to 10. 9%. In August 2011, the Future Fund sold its remaining above market weight Telstra shares, with over one million shareholders, Telstra is currently the most widely held ASX listed company. As a result, Telstra was removed from the National Broadband Network RFP process on 15 December 2008. In response, Telstra has announced that it will raise speeds on its existing Next G network, following Telstras exclusion from the National Broadband Network bidding process Telstras share price suffered the biggest one day percentage fall in its history. As part of the agreement, Telstra would not be able to market their mobile network as an alternative to the NBN for a number of years, Telstra remains the owner of its networks

25.
Vodafone (Australia)
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Vodafone Australia is a mobile telecommunications company that operates the Vodafone brand in Australia. The joint venture entity is owned by Hutchison Telecommunications Australia and by Vodafone Group plc on a 50-50 basis and it was formed on 10 June 2009, after shareholder and ACCC approval. VHA began phasing out the Three brand in mid-2011, at the time registration of new subscribers to Three ended and would instead become Vodafone customers. The Three network was shut down completely on 30 August 2013, Vodafones GSM Vodafones 2G GSM service on 900 MHz and 1800 MHz covers 94. 52% of the population. Vodafone was the first Telco in Australia to use the Digital Mobile Network, the Network launched its Digital Network in 1994 under the helm of then Australian CEO, Frans de Wolff of Vodafone Group with his company charter of Vodafone - We do things Digitaly. In major cities the 2G GSM network offers GPRS data connections, de Wolff played an integral part of bringing the digital revolution to Australia and also implementing faster GSM networks and the phasing out of CDMA networking. Vodafones 3G2100 MHz Vodafones UMTS network is available in areas of major cities. Outside of major cities, Vodafone and Optus work independently, 3G users outside of major cities use either Vodafone 2100 MHz 3G towers, Vodafones new 3G900 MHz 3G coverage, or fall back to GSM services. Vodafones 3G900 MHz Expansion of Vodafones 3G UMTS network was completed in October 2009, Vodafone is also expanding 3G900 MHz network into capital cities. The 850 MHz spectrum belonged to Hutchison prior to the merger and was used by their brand Orange, threes 3G2100 MHz Three operates a 2100 MHz 3G network in a 50/50 partnership with Telstra, covering approximately 56% of Australias population. The 3G network covers Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, in areas not covered by the joint 3G network, customers are able to roam on Telstras Next G850 MHz 3G network, and Telstras 900 MHz and 1800 MHz 2G networks. This agreement allows Three to offer coverage to up to 96% of the population, on 31 August 2012, this network was shut down following the termination of the network sharing agreement. Vodafones 4G1800 MHz Vodafone switched on their 4G1800 MHz service with 20 MHz of bandwidth in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Newcastle, the network has been upgraded and expanded considerably since then. The Vodafone 2G and 3G networks originally operated as a single network, during the merger, VHA had made no comment on their intention to combine the 3 and Vodafone networks, or offer roaming between them. However, as of late 2009, roaming onto the Vodafones 2G network was enabled for Three customers in areas that had limited 3G coverage, there are no additional charges in 3s 2G zone, although data speeds are limited. VHA has spent $550 million on the project so far, the new retail structure will lift VHAs current headcount by 1,400 to 5,100 staff, and add over 170 stores. 3-branded stores are owned by VHA

26.
Boost Mobile
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Boost Mobile is a wireless telecommunications carrier used by two independent networks in Australia and the U. S. Boost Mobile was founded in 2000 by Peter Adderton in Australia, Boost Mobile In Australia is operated by Boost Tel Pty Limited using the Telstra wireless network. Boost Mobile in the United States is owned and operated by Boost Worldwide, Peter Adderton founded Boost Mobile in Australia and New Zealand in 2000. Australian wireless provider Boost Tel Pty Limited offers mobile service under the Boost Mobile brand, up until January 21,2013, Boost branded services were provided by the Optus network. Optus has licensed the Boost brand since the launch in 2000. In 2012, Optus decided to end its business relationship with Boost Tel Pty Ltd, in response, Boost entered into a deal with network competitor Telstra. After 20 January 2013, all existing Boost customers will be converted to Optus customers, on March 7, Boost Tel Pty Ltd. began to offer products and services under the Boost Pre-paid Mobile brand as an MVNO hosted on the Telstra Next G network. Boost Mobile in New Zealand was a subsidiary of Telecom New Zealand, the Boost Mobile brand was discontinued in New Zealand as of November 2007. In June 2010, Boost Mobile launched a marketing campaign that purported to identify text messaging disorders in order to bring attention to Boost Mobiles offer of 100 texts for one dollar. As part of the campaign Boost Mobile cited an academic paper co-authored by Dr. Shari Walsh of the Queensland University of Technology, however, Dr. Walsh stated that her paper did not identify any texting disorders and that Boost Mobile was not accurately representing her research. After founding Boost Mobile in Australia and New Zealand in 2000, using Nextels iDEN network, Boost Mobile offered an unlimited push-to-talk service, marketed as only costing a dollar a day, at a time when cellphone plans offering unlimited talk were still rare. The service was initially exclusive to markets in areas of California and Nevada and was marketed towards urban minorities, eventually Nextel became the sole owner of Boosts United States operations in 2003. Nextel began to expand the brand elsewhere in the United States in late 2004, Sprint Corporation acquired Nextel Communications in 2006, leaving Boost Mobile as a subsidiary of the merged company, Sprint Nextel Corporation. While the plans resulted in significant growth for Boost Mobile, Boost did not begin shifting to CDMA entirely, to compete with unlimited offerings from competitors in the wireless industry, Boost Mobile announced on January 15,2009, that it would launch a Monthly Unlimited Plan. The plan was accompanied by re-focusing the brand towards a broader demographic than before, the new unlimited plan resulted in a net gain of more than 674,000 customers in about three months. Despite this lift, Nextel overall suffered a gross loss of 1.25 million contract subscriptions. The unexpected surge in popularity for the service caused significant strain on the Nextel iDEN network—as many customers reported long and sometimes week-long delays in receiving text messages. A Boost Mobile spokesman said that they did not anticipate the level of popularity for the new service, at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, Boost Mobile announced it would begin to offer a new unlimited plan using Sprints CDMA network, costing $50 a month

27.
Crazy John's
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Crazy Johns was a mobile phone retail chain in Australia started by Turkish Australian businessman John Ilhan. Crazy Johns was the largest independent phone retailer in Australia, employing more than 400 people with more than 60 retail stores, following his death in 2007, Ilhans wife Patricia sold her stake in the company to Vodafone Australia, now a part of Vodafone Hutchison Australia. Crazy Johns opened its first store in Brunswick, Victoria, in 1991, by 1998, there were fifteen store locations in Victoria, and the retailer was ranked in the top ten of Telstras mobile dealers. As of January 2013 they had 61 stores, the name Crazy Johns came about through people constantly telling Ilhan his marketing ideas were crazy, and the name stuck. Crazy Johns came to prominence when it was the first company in Australia to offer $1 mobile phones, following the death of the companys founder John Ilhan in 2007, his wife sold her 75% share of the company to Vodafone in September 2008. Approximately 200 staff became redundant.3 million loss for the six months to 30 June 2012, the remaining 21 Crazy Johns premises are to be re-branded as Vodafone Australia stores. Crazy Johns was originally a dealer for Telstra Mobile, Australias largest mobile telecommunications provider, with 900,000 customers providing close to 10 percent of Telstras mobile revenue. In 2003, Telstra sent a letter by facsimile to Crazy Johns demanding payment of A$21,283,642.61 it said was for the overpayment of trailing commissions, a percent of customers phone bills. In the letter, Telstra hinted that, if the demand was not paid for, Crazy Johns paid the $21 million, and immediately filed suit to demand it be refunded. In May 2005, Telstra issued a second, $12 million demand, Crazy Johns applied for an injunction in the Federal Court in Melbourne to prevent Telstra from going ahead with this second demand. This was dismissed by Justice Mark Weinberg, Crazy Johns paid the amount, Ilhan said he was fed up with Telstras bullying and that it isnt competitive any longer. Telstra did just that, giving the two years notice in July 2005. After announcing his intention to defect from Telstra at the end of its contract, Telstra created a new company, BQ Communications, Telstra denied many of the claims made in the affidavits, but not the new company. On 1 July 2007, Crazy Johns made the transition towards becoming a Mobile Virtual Network Operator through the Vodafone network, the deal allowed Crazy Johns to deal directly with mobile phone handset manufacturers and offer its own competitive mobile phone plans. Crazy Johns agreed to limit the amount of information it can use after its contract ended. Crazy Johns were a sponsor of the Collingwood VFL Football Club, in 2003, Crazy Johns bid for the naming rights to Subiaco Oval, in Perth, Western Australia, but soon lost it due to community action

28.
IiNet
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IiNet Limited is Australias second-largest internet service provider with more than 1.3 million customers as of 15 August 2011. It was acquired by TPG Telecom in September 2015 for $1.56 billion and its subsidiaries include Internode, Westnet, AAPT Limited, Adam Internet, TransACT and Netspace. Their focus is primarily on ADSL-based Internet access, using their own ADSL2+ infrastructure, iiNet also provides optical-fibre, dial-up, and voice services. IiNet was founded in 1993 by Michael Malone and Michael OReilly and it began as one of the first Australian ISPs to offer TCP/IP Internet access, as opposed to the store-and-forward techniques that were then in use at other ISPs. It claims it was the first ISP to offer PPP access in Australia, in 1996, iiNet successfully expanded into the Adelaide market under the name light. iinet. net. au, in partnership with locals John Lindsay and Leigh Hart. The SA arm moved quickly to become the number three ISP in the state, before being acquired by Auslink in 1998, a growing demand on infrastructure and a rapidly increasing number of staff saw the company relocate again in 1997 to the central QV.1 building. In late 1997, the Internet market was moving towards 56K technology, in 1998, competitive pressure from budget national providers, led by One. Tel, started to reach the Perth market. In 1998, founding partner Michael Malone purchased the company outright, in September 2000, iiNet became the first Western Australian provider to offer ADSL technology. Based on its new abilities, and after consolidating its position, iiNet focused on expanding to national coverage in the early 2000s through strategic acquisitions. In 2003, iiNet made what was then its biggest acquisition, the acquisition significantly increased iiNets share of the Australian and New Zealand Internet market. In 2005, iiNet acquired the residential ISP business aj trademarks of rival OzEmail, the business side and infrastructure of that business remained in the ownership of US-parent MCI. OzEmail had been Australias largest ISP until 2000, when it was acquired by MCI, the retail arm had been neglected, and the company moved very late into ADSL, meaning that it had difficulty positioning itself as a broadband player. IiNet initially used both the OzEmail and iiNet brands on the east coast, but by 2006 iiNet had largely abandoned the OzEmail brand, in late 2004, throughout 2005 and into 2006, iiNet moved to introduce their own DSLAM infrastructure into telephone exchanges Australia-wide. This move allowed iiNet to be the first Australian DSL carrier to offer speeds of over 1.5 Mbit/s to a significant number of customers. The maximum download speed was initially 8 Mbit/s, which increased to 12 Mbit/s and later to 24 Mbit/s, there are currently over 406 enabled exchanges active around Australia, and a list of these exchanges can be found at iiNets official website. 2004 saw the introduction of iiPhone in the form of a long-distance carrier, in August 2005, iiNet released iiNetPhone, their consumer VoIP service. The product was a service, available only to customers that also use their iiPhone service. As with most VoIP services, call costs were well under market prices for a regular copper line

29.
Lycamobile
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Lycamobile is a mobile virtual network operator operating in 21 countries worldwide. The bulk of Lycamobile revenue is claimed to be generated from Lycamobiles SIM products, Lycatel, also a part of Lyca Group, serves its growing base of customers within expatriate and ethnic global niche segments that want to make international calls. Lycamobile sells international Pay-As-You-Go SIM cards to consumers wanting to make telephone calls. An MVNO leases radio frequency from mobile network operators and it forms partnerships with the operators in each country it serves. Lycamobile has also developed distinct business structures such as MVNA arrangements in different countries and it has often adopted an aggressive pricing strategy on entry to new markets in order to acquire early market share. In some instances, MNO partners of Lycamobile have been surprised by the actual rather than their own projected estimated growth of Lycamobiles products. In 2015 Lycamobile renewed a multi-year MVNO deal with O2 The Lycamobile brand concept was launched in 2005 with the first trading using the brand taking place in 2006, since its launch in the Netherlands in 2006, Lycamobile has more than 15 million Pay-As-You-Go customers worldwide. In 2015, PC Magazines mobile analyst advised US customers to take a look at some of the smaller virtual carriers which may offer better service or more customized plans such as Lycamobile. The brand, like its parent, is aimed at those who wish to make national and international calls on a Pay-As-You-Go basis. Lycatel offers online sales of calling cards and direct sales through the Lycateleshop. The Lycatel brand is not itself used as a card brand name. The most popular brands of Lycatel calling cards include Africa Tel, Cobra, Eurocity, One+One, Spicy Tel, Supertel, Unitel, Viper, each calling card brand features different calling rates to different destinations with some being more suited to single use. Others are more suited to use but will feature a higher standard rate for each call placed. Whilst there is a level of confusion between pricing, Lycatels underlying charges are significantly less than connecting international calls in a conventional sense. The Lycatel brand has been in existence since 2001 although its early ownership, wholesalers in turn sell onto retailers who then sell primarily to expatriate customers who want to make low-cost international calls. Although the calling card market is considered to be in decline with the arrival of mobile telephony. The Lycatalk brand is part of the Lyca family of brands. Lycatalk has less prominence than the Lycatel and Lycamobile brands but has a structured product with no set up fees or other maintenance charges

30.
TPG Telecom
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TPG Telecom Limited is an Australian telecommunications and IT company that specialises in consumer and business internet services as well as mobile telephone services. As of August 2015, TPG is the second largest internet provider in Australia. As such, it has over 671,000 ADSL2+ subscribers,358,000 landline subscribers and 360,000 mobile subscribers, and owns the second largest ADSL2+ network in Australia, consisting of 391 ADSL2+ DSLAMs. The company was formed from the merger between Total Peripherals Group, which was established in 1992 by David and Vicky Teoh, TPG provide five ranges of products and services including Internet access, networking, OEM services, mobile phone service and accounting software. In 2007, TPG took a 70 per cent controlling interest in then struggling Adelaide internet provider Chariot, Soul Converged Communications, formally known as Comindico, was an Australian telecommunications company based in Sydney. Souls main activities revolve around telecommunications, with business and home, in April 2005, it bought a 42.9 per cent stake in mobile phone company B Digital. In September 2006 Soul increased its stake in B Digital to 74.6 per cent, on 25 November 2009, following shareholder approval, SP Telemedia Ltd changed its name to TPG Telecom Ltd. The ASX code was changed also from SOT to TPM, in November 2009, TPG, which already owned a substantial portion of PIPE Networks shares, announced it intended to acquire the company. TPG completed its acquisition of PIPE for $373 million by way of scheme of arrangement on 31 March 2010, after shareholders, the acquisition allows TPG to gain full control of PIPE Networks fibre optic network in Australia and the Pipe Pacific Cable, connecting Sydney to Guam. TPG, in a statement released on 14 July 2011, announced it intended to acquire IntraPower for $12.8 million and it was also stated in the statement that the Board of Directors of IntraPower recommended the shareholders of the company approve the transaction. The acquisition was completed on 30 August, allowing TPG to benefit from TrustedCloud, on 9 December 2013, TPG purchased AAPT from Telecom New Zealand for $450 million. The transaction allows TPG to gain control of AAPTs fibre-optic network, which extends across six Australian states and territories, the transaction was expected to be finalised by February 2014. On 13 March 2015, TPG advised of its intent to take over Australias 3rd Largest ISP iiNet at $AU8.60 per share, giving a value of 1. 4Bn. TPG offered $8.60 per iiNet share, on top of the entitlement to the already-declared 10.5 cent interim dividend, the deal was approved by shareholders on July 27, and by the ACCC on August 20,2015. This made TPG Australias second-largest ISP by customer volume after Telstra, on 7 May 2013, TPG won a $13.5 million bid for two 10Mhz spectra of the 2. 5Ghz band. TPG, which operates a virtual network, in a statement. Although TPG did not reveal what the purpose of the spectra would be, the network will be switched on in October 2014. It was also estimated that the cost of the plans would be $69.99 per month, lower than the current price of NBN plans though it excludes initial connection, TPG also include plans and bundles on the National Broadband Network

31.
Truphone
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Truphone is a global mobile network that operates its service internationally. It has headquarters in London, and offices in Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Philippines, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United States. Truphone offers three products, Truphone, a SIM-based GSM mobile service that offers customers improved voice and data performance. Truphone Mobile Recording, which enables businesses to record and securely store mobile communications. The Truphone App, which allows free VoIP capabilities, in addition to features, for iOS, Android. Truphone was founded in 2006 by James Tagg, Alexander Straub, the companys core business focus is Truphone. It is a GSM SIM-based mobile service that provides bundles of minutes, text, Truphone calls this group of countries Truphone World. Within this area is a group of countries the company calls the Truphone Zone, here, the company has MVNO partnerships with local operators and offers customers additional local mobile phone numbers. This is so users’ contacts can always reach them with a call at a local rate. Truphone was originally formed to develop downloadable mobile VoIP applications for smartphones and these offered the ability to make free or low cost calls on the mobile device in areas where there is weak or no GSM coverage, and to send Instant Messages to other networks. The first Truphone application released was for Nokia devices and this was followed by applications for Apple iPhone, BlackBerry smartphones, Apple iPod Touch, Android devices and a softphone application for desktop was launched in late 2010. Truphones SIM based products are entirely separate from the Apps, Truphone does, however, intend to combine the SIM and App accounts for customers in the future. Currently this includes Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, the company has built a mobile network with core network technology distributed across four continents. Truphone uses these points of presence to reduce the distance that mobile traffic has to travel. This reduces latency, improves data speeds and call quality, Truphone offers local rates for calls, texts and data through commercial arrangements with mobile network operators in 66 countries around the world. The company focuses mainly on the marketplace, and also has a pre-pay SIM that comes with 1 phone number. Business plans include 2 phone numbers as standard, the Truphone Mobile Recording service is delivered with its wholly owned subsidiary TruObsidian, an organisation created out of the acquisition of Obsidian Wireless by Truphone in 2012. Smart CLI The Smart Caller Line Identification technology ensures that the most appropriate number is displayed on the phone of the person the Truphone user is calling, Mobile recording Truphone’s voice and SMS recording is integrated within the network infrastructure

32.
Virgin Mobile Canada
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Virgin Mobile Canada is a provider of postpaid and prepaid wireless voice, text and data communications services throughout Canada. Launched on March 1,2005 as a joint venture between Virgin Group and BCE Inc, BCE took sole ownership on July 1,2009 when it closed a deal to purchase the stake it did not already own. Virgin Mobile calls its customers Members and offers a Member Benefits program, which provides its customers with offers, discounts. The VirginMobile. ca domain name was registered by Virgin Enterprises Limited on July 4,2003 with the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, when accessed, it displayed a domain parking page until June 14,2004, when it was replaced with an announcement. There were also links to information about the company, related news articles, Virgin Mobile claimed, we work like maniacs to bring you Canada’s most awesome mobile phone company. Virgin Mobile launched in Canada on March 1,2005 as a virtual network operator using the Bell Mobility network. At the time, Virgin Mobile was operating solely as a prepaid service, the companys website showcased several feature phones it offered, and advertised itself as a no catch mobile operator. Virgin Mobile Canada was the first mobile carrier in Canada to launch without an access fee. Since its launch, Virgin Mobile has used edgy and controversial advertising, leading to demands for an apology, requests to cease and desist the advertising and this marketing technique is still used by Virgin Mobile Canada to this day. In February 2008, Virgin Mobile Canada launched postpaid wireless service, to promote and encourage Canadians to consider the new postpaid service, the company released a new slogan, Its Better to Be a Member. Since then, postpaid plans have become a choice for new and existing Members. On July 1,2009, Bell Mobility acquired the 50% of Virgin Mobile Canada that it previously did not own for $142 million, following this, Bell greatly reduced its investments into Solo Mobile in order to invest in and improve its new Virgin brand. On December 21,2009, Virgin Mobile Canadas then-president Robert Blumenthal promised a very different Virgin Mobile with higher-value devices and services in 2010, Virgin Mobile officially launched HSPA+ services on February 2,2010. This was promoted with a “SIM Fashion Show” launch event featuring Victorias Secret models, the company launched HSPA+ with several phones, including the BlackBerry Bold 9700, BlackBerry Curve 8530, the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, MiFi and Samsung M330. A Broadband2Go USB mobile broadband modem was also part of the launch lineup, to prepare for the back-to-school season of that year, the Virgin Mobile SuperTab was introduced on August 23 as a response to competition from other providers, especially Koodo Mobile. The SuperTab was only available to postpaid Members, while HSPA+ products, to differentiate itself from other mobile providers, Virgin Mobile Canada launched its Member Benefits program in 2010. This program is available to all Postpaid and Prepaid Members and provides exclusive discounts and VIP experiences with many brands in the fashion, travel, music. Since launch, the program has grown and offers exclusive offers for its Members, in response to competition from major mobile brands and new entrants, Virgin Mobile introduced a City Unlimited plan on February 18,2011

33.
Virgin Mobile Chile
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Virgin Mobile Chile is a mobile network operator in Chile using the Movistar mobile network. VMLA announced in June of this year its plan to become Latin America’s leading mobile network operator. Since then, the company has made significant progress towards its goal of beginning operations in many countries. Chile will be its first commercial operation in early 2012, “We are very appreciative of Subtel’s prompt approval of our application, said VMLA’s chairman Phil Wallace

34.
Tata DoCoMo
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Tata DoCoMo is an Indian mobile network operator, which is a joint venture between Tata Teleservices and NTT Docomo since November 2008. It is the eighth largest operator in terms of subscribers. Tata DOCOMO is part of the Indian conglomerate Tata Group, the company received the license to operate GSM services in nineteen telecom circles and was allotted spectrum in eighteen of these circles and launched GSM services on 24 June 2009. It began operations first in South India and currently operates GSM services in eighteen of twenty two telecom circles and it has licences to operate in Delhi but has not been allocated spectrum from the Government. Tata DOCOMO offers both prepaid and postpaid cellular phone services and it has become very popular with its one-second pulse especially in semi-urban and rural areas. In November 2008, NTT Docomo invested $2.2 billion in Tata Teleservices, DoCoMo, TTSL and Tata Sons had in March 2009 signed shareholder agreement for the business alliance. In March 2009, DoCoMo acquired a 27. 31% in Tata Teleservices for Rs 12,924 crore and 20. 25% in Tata Teleservices Ltd, overall, DoCoMo holds 26. 5%in Tata Teleservices. On 5 November 2010, Tata DOCOMO became the first private sector company to launch 3G services in India. Tata DOCOMO had about 42.34 million users at the end of December 2010, in April 2011, Tata DOCOMO signed Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor as its brand ambassador on a three-year contract, now the contract is expired. For the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, actors Vijay, on 20 October 2011, the Tata Group brought its brands – Indicom, Tata Docomo, Walky, Photon, INTERNET – under the Tata DOCOMO name. All subscribers to these services were migrated to the Docomo brand on 20 October 2011, in 2015, Virgin Mobile - the other brand under Tata Group was also merged with Tata Docomo. T24 Mobile is not part of the rebranding and continue to retain their names, according to the agreement between the Tata Group and NTT DoCoMo, the latter had the right to sell its stake if Tata Docomo missed performance targets, with Tata getting right of first refusal. On 25 April 2014, NTT Docomo had announced that they would all of their shares in Tata DoCoMo. The RBI had approved the deal in January 2015, but however, went back on their decision and rejected the deal in March 2015, citing FEMA regulations. Following the RBI decision, the Tata Group offered to purchase Docomos stake at ₹23.34 a share on the basis of a market value determined on 30 June 2014 by PwC. NTT Docomo then moved the London Court of International Arbitration seeking a valuation of ₹58 a share. On 28 February 2017, Tata and NTT Docomo resolved their dispute, Tata DOCOMO operates in 19 telecom circles and offers services on GSM and CDMA platforms. On 19 May 2010, the 3G spectrum auction in India ended, Tata DOCOMO paid ₹5864.29 crores for spectrum in 10 circles

35.
Virgin Mobile South Africa
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Virgin Mobile South Africa is a mobile phone service provider operating in South Africa. The company launched in 2006 as a joint venture between Sir Richard Bransons Virgin Group and Cell C, in February 2011, Cell C sold its stake to Virgin Group and Calico Investments, after which Virgin Group assumed a controlling stake. Virgin Mobile have based their pricing on a drop-down rate system in which after the first 5 minutes the cost of the call will drop, SMS on the other hand has a flat rate of 60c. Virgin Mobile also offer inclusive SMS bundles on pre-paid packages where subscribers receive 500 SMSs when purchasing a R99 airtime voucher and 250 SMSs when purchasing a R50 airtime voucher, certain contracts also include 1000 free SMSs per month. MTN claims to have more than 24 million users, Virgin Mobile offers users mobile internet via EDGE, 3G and HSPA+ at the cost of 60c per MB. Virgin Mobile Virgin Mobile South Africa

36.
Virgin Mobile USA
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Virgin Mobile USA Virgin Mobile USA is a no-contract mobile provider on the nationwide Sprint network. Virgin Mobile USA is an owned subsidiary of Sprint Corporation. Virgin Mobile USA is an owned subsidiary of Sprint Corporation. In 2008, Virgin Mobile USA acquired post-paid services provider Helio, in 2009, Sprint Nextel bought out joint venture partner Virgin Group, becoming the sole owner of Virgin Mobile USA.99 without a contract. Virgin Mobile branded top-up cards are available online and in 150,000 retail locations nationwide, Sprint Corporation licenses the right to use the Virgin Mobile brand in the United States from United Kingdom-based Virgin Group. In July 2000, John Tantum and Dave Whetstone pitched Richard Branson on entering the U. S. market after Virgin had successfully launched Virgin Mobile in the United Kingdom in 1999, sounds great, lets give it a go. At that point, the U. S. team began pitching the U. S. mobile operators on the concept of an MVNO, there had been many resellers that had come and gone. The MVNO concept Virgin Mobile was pitching to mobile operators was a joint venture and this was very different than the often contentious relationship that mobile operators had with resellers. Sprint had tried and failed twice with a product. Once Sprint stepped up the network in September 2001, a joint venture was created between Virgin Group and Sprint Corporation, and Dan Schulman was brought in to run the business. Virgin Mobile USA began operating in the summer of 2002 and was the first mobile network operator in the United States. Because prepay had a downmarket perception at the time, Virgin Mobile USA called its service pay as you go, in May 2007, Virgin Mobile USA, Inc. initiated an initial public offering by filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. On October 10,2007, Virgin Mobiles sold 27.5 million shares at US$15 per share, on November 15,2007, approximately one month after the IPO, Virgin Mobile USA announced earnings for the three-month period ended September 30,2007. The company reported that its third-quarter loss widened to $7.3 million, the company also reported a pro-forma loss of 15¢ per share, compared with a loss of 10¢ per share in the year-ago period. As of November 16,2007, shares of the common stock had declined to $9.19 per share. The company reported in 2007 that it held a license for the Virgin Mobile brand in the United States, U. S. Virgin Islands. In exchange, Virgin Mobile USA agreed to pay 0. 25% of gross revenues up to a limit of $4 million. In 2008, Virgin Mobile USA acquired Helio, Inc. a competing mobile virtual network operator also hosted on the Sprint network, aimed at post-paid, by late 2009, Virgin Mobile USA ceased selling new Helio phones or service, dropping the Helio name

37.
Virgin Group
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Virgin Group Ltd. is a British Multinational corporation venture capital Conglomerate founded by entrepreneurs Sir Richard Branson and Nik Powell. Virgin Groups date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by Companies House, the net worth of Virgin Group was estimated at £5-5.5 billion as of November 2014. The brand name Virgin arose when Richard Branson and Nik Powell formed a record shop and they considered themselves virgins in business. Branson has described the V in the logo as an expressive tick, Virgin Group announced the establishment of Virgin Cruises on December 4,2014 with financial backing from Bain Capital. The cruise line would be lead by CEO Tom McAlpin, would have two new ships built and be based in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area. Virgin Group has its headquarters at The Battleship Building in the Paddington district of the City of Westminster, previously it was in The School House in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The Virgin Group of companies have a structure that contains elements of a generic conglomerate. Examples of licensing are Virgin Records and Virgin Media, in mid-May 2013, the Virgin Group expressed its intention to seek out opportunities in Australias healthcare industry to consolidate on the Groups Australian fitness centers. It operated for 14 years, until November 2010

38.
Virgin Active
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Virgin Active is a chain of health clubs in South Africa, Namibia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Australia, Singapore, Thailand and the United Kingdom. The gym company launched in 1999 in Preston, Lancashire as part of Richard Bransons Virgin Group, in 2013 headquarters were moved to the Barbican in London leaving a small call centre in Milton Keynes. The South African company also runs Virgin Life Care, in 2002, by which point the company had 350,000 members, Branson sold 55 percent of the company to Bridgepoint Capital for £40 million. In 2005, Branson bought out Bridgepoints stake in the business for £134.5 million and it subsequently expanded its operations in 2004 to Italy. By 2005 the company had 25 clubs in the UK,77 clubs in South Africa and 12 clubs in Continental Europe and it opened its first Australian club in Sydney in late 2008, with further clubs launch in Singapore and Thailand in 2015. On 1 November 2006 it took over the UK-based operation of the more prestigious Holmes Place chain, on 26 April 2011 it announced the takeover of UK gym operator Esportas 55 clubs increasing the UK business to 124 clubs. The current Group CEO is Paul Woolf, who succeeded founder Matthew Bucknall in late 2013, in 2014 Virgin Active launched a new low-cost gym called Virgin Active RED in South Africa. On 16 April 2015, it was reported that Virgin Group and their private equity backers had sold 80% of Virgin Active to the South African investment firm Brait, owned by the billionaire Christo Wiese. The sale price was £682 million for an 80% stake, valuing the business at £1.3 billion, including debt, the company will continue to operate under the Virgin Active brand. In December 2015, the South African Competition Tribunal announced that it is investigating Virgin Actives South African operations, woja became trapped between the cabins mantel and the lift shaft and was dragged downwards, suffering horrific injuries. Although she was seven other people in the lift, she was the only one injured in the accident. In December 2011 Virgins flag ship club in High Street Kensington was accused of covering up the death of model and city worker Elsa Carneau, who drowned in the swimming pool at the west London club. A fire crew and paramedics tried to revive the Imperial College graduate for almost an hour before she was taken to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Firemen also described how a man, who said he was a member of staff, had stood by filming efforts to resuscitate Carneau on his mobile telephone, pierre Carneau, the victims father criticised Virgin active for not apologising for the accident. He stated It was an accident waiting to happen, if things had been done properly, I think there’s a chance our daughter may still be alive. ”Virgin Active admitted health and safety breaches and was fined £100,000 at Southwark Crown Court in December last year. An investigation found “serious shortcomings in the management of risks connected with swimming activity at the going back to 2009. In April 2014, three gym goers were where injured when a suspended ceiling collapsed on to a line of rowing machines at the Virgin Active on Chiswick High Road, in West London. Virgin Active Global Portal Virgin Active Australia Virgin Active Italy Virgin Active Portugal Virgin Active Singapore Virgin Active South Africa Virgin Active Spain Virgin Active UK

39.
Virgin Books
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Virgin Books is a United Kingdom book publisher 90% owned by the publishing group Random House, and 10% owned by Virgin Group, the company originally set up by Richard Branson as a record company. Virgin published this series from 1991 to 1997, as well as a range of Doctor Who reference books from 1992 to 1998 under the Doctor Who Books imprint. In recent times the company is best known for its commercial non-fiction list, which business, health and lifestyle, music, film. Richard Bransons autobiography Losing My Virginity, released in 1998, was an international best-seller at the time and his follow-up title Business Stripped Bare was published in September 2008. Virgin Business Guides included titles by Robert Craven, Paul Barrow, Random House, through its United Kingdom division, acquired a 90% stake in the company in March 2007. In November 2009, Virgin became an independent imprint within Ebury Publishing, other popular ranges have included various erotic fiction lines, Black Lace specializes in erotica and erotic romance written by female authors specifically for heterosexual female readers. The imprint does not publish novels written by men partly as a marketing scheme, the books explore womens sexuality as well as such themes as BDSM, group sex and bisexuality. The imprint began publishing in 1993, has published over 250 titles, in 2006, Black Lace developed three specific lines within the imprint, contemporary, historical and paranormal. Black Lace also publishes short story anthologies, novella collections and in 2007 launched its first trilogy, the imprint marked its fifteen-year anniversary in 2008 with re-issues of several of its original novels. In 2009, Virgin announced that Black Lace would add no new titles in 2010, the line was relaunched in 2012. Nexus Books, sado-masochistic pornography written mostly for men who have sex with women, in 2009, Virgin announced that Nexus would add no new titles in 2010. Idol for gay men, no longer existing Sapphire for lesbians, a grammar of the Hindūstānī or Urdū language. Volume 6423 of Harvard College Library preservation microfilm program, a grammar of the Hindūstānī or Urdū language. The New York Public Library The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, the Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany, Volume 8. The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany, Volume 26, the Asiatic journal and monthly register for British and foreign India, China and Australasia, Volume 29. The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany, Volume 9

Apple's first product, the Apple I, invented by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, was sold as an assembled circuit board and lacked basic features such as a keyboard, monitor, and case. The owner of this unit added a keyboard and wooden case.

The Apple II, introduced in 1977, was a major technological advancement over its predecessor.

Older Ethernet equipment. Clockwise from top-left: An Ethernet transceiver with an in-line 10BASE2 adapter, a similar model transceiver with a 10BASE5 adapter, an AUI cable, a different style of transceiver with 10BASE2 BNC T-connector, two 10BASE5 end fittings (N connectors), an orange "vampire tap" installation tool (which includes a specialized drill bit at one end and a socket wrench at the other), and an early model 10BASE5 transceiver (h4000) manufactured by DEC. The short length of yellow 10BASE5 cable has one end fitted with a N connector and the other end prepared to have a N connector shell installed; the half-black, half-grey rectangular object through which the cable passes is an installed vampire tap.